Religious schools ‘show bias for rich’ – EducationGuardian.co.uk

Damning new evidence that faith schools are siphoning off middle-class pupils can be revealed today, as research shows they are failing to take children from the poorest backgrounds nationwide.

Even when they are situated in deprived inner-city areas, religious schools have fewer poor children than local authority secondary schools.

New figures show that religious schools, in England, admit 10 per cent fewer poor pupils than is representative of the local area. Local authority schools, meanwhile, take in 30 per cent more and have a disproportionately deprived intake. The result is a school system deeply divided by social class.